Road tripping History

Stella Wenstob | story

Road tripping around the Canal affords beautiful waterfront view as well as historic buildings celebrating both pioneering and engineering feats of the last two centuries. Here are a few historically significant sights along the road.

Union

MCREAVY HOUSE

Located at 10 East 2nd St. is the Victorian mansion of John McReavy. A lumberman, developer, and legislator, McReavy was a boom and bust figure who had dreams of creating the “Venice of the Pacific” in Union. His majestic mansion built in 1890 on the bluff overlooking Union is now the site of a loving restoration project. It is also purported to host a few ghosts and is on many local paranormal watch-lists.

DALBY WATERWHEEL

The picturesque, refurbished Dalby Waterwheel located on East State Route 106 is a tourist staple of Union. Originally built in the 1920s, Edwin J. Dalby created the first source of hydroelectric power on the Hood Canal.

Shelton

THE COLONIAL HOUSE

Designed by architect Joseph Wohleb of Olympia, it was built as the home of the director of Simpson Timber Co., Mark E. Reed and his wife Irene Reed (née Simpson), in 1920. Ironically, the lumber used in the building was imported since Simpson did not yet have a mill in Shelton at the time of construction. When the Reed family moved to Olympia in 1930, the house was converted to guest rooms for both Simpson’s and Rayonier’s Shelton operations. Later it was altered to be additional office space. Now the space hosts many community events, under the direction of Green Diamond, a subsidiary of the Simpson Investment Company.

Quilcene

WORTHINGTON MANOR

Worthington Manor was built as the home of Millard Fillmore Hamilton in 1892. Hamilton, along with his partner Squire McArdle, are noted in history for purchasing and proposing the town site of Quilcene in the 1880s. The Worthington Family, were a founding family of Quilcene who bought the property in 1907. The family were early entrepreneurs and foresters. This land became Worthington Park the purpose of which is to preserve and restore a culturally and historically significant private residence and transform it into a community asset. The grounds boast a beautiful pond, trails, open air theatre, rolling fields, old-growth orchards and access to the Little Quilcene River. The building hopes to open as a guest house in fall of 2021.

Hamma Hamma

THE TWIN BRIDGES

The twin bridges span the North and South Hamma Hamma River respectively. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridges feature a beautifully engineered load bearing arch– the bridge carries the load of the road in both the lower ends of the arch beneath the level of the road and in the arch above the road. Completed in 1924 by convicts, they are examples of "rainbow arch bridges."